The Collection
by The Ideasmith
Summary: A collection of my one-shots


**This was a challenge from the TreeClan, FieldClan, LakeClan and CaveClan RP forum. This one is called Disabled.**

**Enjoy~**

* * *

><p>Stalking through a hushed forest, a brown tom prowled. It was a bright day, yet no animals seemed to be about. The feline, gazing around with sharp eyes of hazel, slipped into a bush to get closer to the prey he believed he was stalking. Hardly a noise was heard when he exited, coming a stop at the edge of a clearing. A flash of disappointment crossed his face.<p>

Anger burst out in his mind first. _Where did it go?_ A small growl left his throat, rumbly and light. He scanned the ground for where it could have gone. _Ahah._ His eyes spotted little paw prints that moved away from the spot he stood in. The tom followed in pursuit, ready to capture his first catch in a long while. White ears flicking, black-striped tail lowering, he fell back into a hunting crouch.

He instinctively opened his jaws to taste the air, but snapped them closed. _No use._ A reminding thought told him. A heavy, yet quieted sigh escaped his lips before he moved along. White paws moved him closer to his goal, and an ambitious mind drove him forward. The sound that was brought to attention was light, and barely there. Small scuffling commotion came to his perked ears, just on the other side of ferns that blocked his way. A final pounce would end his long day of hunting.

With a quick dart forward, the brown cat smashed another brown figure into the ground, quickly biting into the throat that it used to breathe. After a short struggle from the rodent, it died soon after. Raising his head, the feline looked to the sky. _I thank StarClan for this life. _

A brief duck of the head assisted the cat in taking the mouse. He turned away to track down another place, going off a whim instead of taking the path he took to get here. Several long moments of trying to recognize trees and attempting to make sure he wasn't going in a circle, the tom made his way to an expanse of meadows.

The tom found himself at a certain tree bordering the fields that stretched out before him. This tree was a twisted oak tree with a trunk that seemed to have a knot at just above the half-way point. He looked at the closest protruding root, light brown gaze spotting three claw marks. With a nod of confirmation, he climbed up onto the exposed roots and stuck his paw into a small hole. Out came a black bird.

Collecting the prey together and tightly clamping them in his mouth, the cat began to head off again. Listening the the muted sounds of the forest around him, frowning since he couldn't locate the animals making them. They seemed to be like cats, whispering about him behind his back...

He realized he had already reached what he was looking for. A gaping hole in a patch of thorn bushes was there in front of the tom. A shake of the head released the thoughts in his mind as he entered the tunnel woven from thorns, vines, and bramble. It was dark in there, the gloomy blackness surrounding him and forming an almost opaque veil in front of his eyes. If he didn't know where to go, he would have been lost, and would have accidentally ran into a wall or something of that nature.

There was a bend in the tunnel, turning to the right. He followed along with it, a light piercing through the murk. He left the passage, rapidly blinking to adjust his eyes to the light. He was now in his home.

It was a wide-spread clearing with a strong wall of tall brambles, thorns, bracken and webs of vines that surrounded the camp. _Impenetrable._ He gazed upon them, admiring them as he always did. His orbs that allowed him to see bounced across the other cats. They locked onto a pair that stood near the pile of prey in the center. The tom leaped over to join them in whatever conversation they were having.

Coming to a stop right beside them, he spoke to make himself announced. "Hey, guys!" The two muffled words came from behind the prey in his jaws. Both of the other cats turned their head simultaneously. The tallest one of the three spoke first. "Hey Runningstripe." The tall tom wore a small smile. His glossy black fur was shining in the sun, and his flame-orange eyes were bright. The she-cat, who was just about Runningstripe's height, meowed as well. "Hi." The blue cat had a bigger smile, one that was wide and showed her teeth, and her dark green eyes were somehow lighter. "How was the hunt?" The tom asked.

The brown cat set down the prey to make it easier to talk. "Better than usual. I got a black bird and a mouse." He poked a creamy-white paw into the corpses of the smaller creatures. A flash of surprise crossed both of the other warrior's faces. It quickly was replaced by delight. "Really? That's great." A purr rolled from a blue throat. "Yeah, it is." The black cat added in.

Accepting approval, the tom grinned happily. "How 'bout I go put this away and we get some prey to share?"

"A shrew'd be find for me." The other male agreed, turning his head away to face one of the sides of camp. "We could eat over there in the shade."

"Sounds awesome. I'll have a vole, if you will." Saying this in another purr, the she-cat smiled widely. "We'll meet you over there."

"Alright!" Runningstripe turned away after picking up the prey on the ground, a smile almost permanently etched into his face. He trotted to the pile while the other cats went to the rendezvous. He gently set down the prey beside the pile and picked through the other catches. After snagging a vole and a shrew with his front claws, he grabbed a squirrel for himself. The warrior ran off to meet up with his buddies.

He skidded to a stop, dipping his head near the ground to drop off the meal. He sat, and was the last part of the triangle that was formed by them. "Thanks, Runningstripe." They praised the tom, gratitude obvious in their tone. It seemed that they had waited for the tom to return from hunting before eating.

Runningstripe noticed this. "Hey guys." He gained their concentration with those simple words. "Did not eat because you were waiting for me?"

A dead silence hung in the air for several moments. The black tom broke it. "No." He said, flatly. _He's such a bad liar. _The warrior felt a frown crease his face. "Streamwhisper?" He turned his piercing hazel gaze on the blue she-cat.

"Wha-wha?" She puffed her fur up, glancing around as if her name was called by a ghost. She met his gaze with her wavering green eyes. "Okay, okay! We did." She looked away to avoid the black tom's glare of disapproval.

"You didn't have too." Runningstripe sighed, but was secretly happy. _What great friends they are. _He smiled softly to himself, taking a large bite of the squirrel in front of him. A small taste ran across his tongue but it was not much. It was very bland, tasteless. The warrior was used to this by now though, and finished off the squirrel with a couple of big mouthfuls of food.

"Hey," The tom snapped his head up, looking at the other tom. "Yeah, Darkdrop?" A questioning mew asked.

"You should get some rest, then we can go on a walk together later." A crooked smile came upon the bigger tom's muzzle. He looked as if he wanted to show something to them, since Streamwhisper looked curious as well. "I can skip a nap. We can go now." Runningstripe stood, and that's when he realized really how tired he felt. His fur felt as if it was dragging him back to earth, and his paws were as heavy as badgers. He could feel his eye lids drooping as well. Darkdrop gave him a look that read, "I told you so."

"Fine. But wake me after... three hours." The warrior said after a brief glance at the sun's position. He moved his paw to the left-overs of his lunch, about to discard it until a blue foot took it from reach. "We can do this. Go sleep." A gentle meow came from Streamwhisper, a faint smile engraved into her face.

The warrior blinked, startled at how much they wanted him to get the rest he needed. "Thanks." He gratefully smiled, and trotted off to the warrior's den, where he laid down in his moss nest at the edge of the almost empty den. Smiling as sleep took over, brown lids covered his vision and his consciousness faded.

"-/\-"

It had been just about three hours when he woke. It wasn't by any cat though. He had waken by himself. Runningstripe sat up, a satisfied yawn stretching his muzzle. Hazel eyes flicked across the den to find no one in it. "Weird. Usually people'd be asleep by now." He frowned, and dread prickled the back of his fur. _Am I missing a ceremony? _He jumped up, leaping out of the den as fast as possible.

He first noticed the heat. _It isn't supposed to be this hot in leaf-fa... _He uttered a small gasp. The camp was on fire.

Flames licked at almost every part of camp, except for the small section the warrior was in. The walls he previously admired were charred and had crumbled into piles of soot, and most of it was still on fire. The dens were ablaze as well, breaking apart and caving in on themselves. The prey pile had managed to burn too. It seemed everyone was gone from camp. _Except for me..._

Panic erupted inside of him as he quickly began to rush around to find an escape. The blaze was closing in on his spot. He found no way through the red walls. No way past a flaming death. No escape. _It's over._ Runningstripe felt his eyes water, and his vision blurred. He began to yell, hoping someone could hear his calls, which they would not. "Darkdrop! Streamwhisper!" He sharply took in air, and inhaled smoke as well. The warrior coughed and choked.

"Da-" He coughed again, "Darkdrop! Streamwhis-" A hacking fit ensued. He dropped down to the ground, violent shaking making his body tremble. "Don't leave me." A pitiful mewl was hardly heard over the roaring and crackling of the fire.

_Don't give up. That's what Darkdrop would say. _He ceased his shaking. _Streamwhisper would say don't lose faith. _The tom rose to his paws, flames just a tail-length from his paws. _Let's give it one last shot._ He told himself, backing up to look for a weak link. His acute vision spotted a patch of flames that was smaller than the rest.

_There's hope!_ He rushed to it, dodging some debris that came from a falling branch. Risking it, the brown-pelted cat dove into the red screen of flames. Intense heat singed his fur tips, burned his eyes, scorched his ears and charred his paw pads. He made it through unlit, and safe.

The problem was that he stumbled on landing. His burned paw pads caused an extreme pain and he had tripped right into a giant ball of fire. Instantly lighting him aflame, it quickly began to make waste of his fur and eat at his skin and flesh that lied beneath. It attacked his eyes, causing him to go blind. He made several attempts to relieve himself of the pain, like ripping out the flaming fur with his claws. That only caused an open gash to be opened in his shoulder. The fire boiled the exposed blood and devoured the uncovered body tissue.

Smoke and embers filled his mouth it opened to scream in pain. The attacking force quickly made waste of it, torching his mouth and destroying his vocal cords so he could no longer yowl. The inside of his muzzle was blackened, his teeth now darker, the opening of his nasal passage scorched, the covering of his tongue ash.

He fell to the ground, crumpling into a burning heap. The warrior let his body get barraged by the assailants. The pain was ever so present and would never leave, even though Runningstripe begged for it to just go. He would have to lay there, and suffer for another few slow, agony-filed moments until his final breath was released.

'_\/_'

In the early morning, dawn had just entered the sky, and lit the atmosphere just as the fire from the day before had, but to the ground. The flames had died down eventually, leaving an ugly scar in the forest from it. Only few spots were still on fire, but some warriors were sent to put them out. All of the cats had survived. Except for...

"Who did this!" A yowl pierced the hushed daybreak. A yowl full of anger, pain and sadness. A yowl that had come from Darkdrop. The tom stood at the scorched body of Runningstripe. Every other cat was crowded around to look too. Darkdrop had been the first to speak.

His blazing orange eyes were focused on a sandy she-cat, who was blankly staring at their comrade's charred figure. "Who did this?" The black tom repeated, fur almost as dark as Runningstripe's scorched skin. "Who started the fire? Who killed my friend?"

Quiet mutterings stirred in the crowd after he spoke, all onlookers all gazing at the same cat that Darkdrop glared at. The dark warrior dug his claws into the ashy dirt, waiting for an answer. "Sandstar-"

"You don't want to-"

"Yes I do!" He cried out again, his yell making nearby cats flinch. "Tell me! They deserve to die."

"... Streamwhsiper. She lit the fire." Sandstar meowed somberly. More whispers.

"_I knew she was working with ClawClan._"

"_We should have never taken her in. She was probably a spy all along!_"

"_She is an enemy to ShardClan! We have to kill her for treason against her own Clan._"

Darkdrop, a broken look replacing his outraged face. "Stream..whisper?" He muttered. Flashes of memory came to him. He remembered how she always liked to take walks next to the ClawClan border, and how he always found her out of camp at night. And how she never opted to fight in a battle against ClawClan. Fiery rage burst inside him again.

"We have to go to ClawClan and kill them once and for all." Darkdrop snarled, gazing upon all the other cats. They all looked at him, unemotional at first. One, a white cat, stood out of the crowd. "I agree! They are a menace and we have to finish them off!"

A gray and brown cat stood. "We can light their camp on fire too and kill all the ones that try to escape! They can get a taste of their own medicine!"

"Yeah!"

"Let's kill them!"

"Revenge!"

Darkdrop looked at the army he had raised, which was almost every warrior and all the apprentices. He looked at Sandstar. "So. What are we going to do?" He asked, his voice managing to reach her through the out cries of agreement.

She seemed to sigh, but if she did, Darkdrop couldn't hear her. "Let's do it I suppose." She mewed to her deputy quietly.

A nod from a black head said that he heard her. "I'll form the attack patrol. We'll be back by dusk." He swore, and then went off to form the battle patrol.

Sandstar watched, quietly, as almost all the cats tried to join the patrol. She inched closer to Runningstripe's body, laying down beside it. The she-cat stayed until the patrol left, and her dark brown eyes watched every cat begin to work on repairs.

"You'll be avenged, my son. I promise."

* * *

><p><strong>How was that? <strong>

**Please, review, favorite, follow if you enjoyed. More one-shots will come out eventually.**

**Thank you for reading,**

**- The Ideasmith**


End file.
